BroadVision Marketing Blog

All businesses selling products or services are familiar with the term “marketing budget.” This means a plan to organize and allocate future funding of business functions. If you only have money for a mini-compact car, you are not going to go look at limousines. Right?

Let’s say you have a marketing budget of $1,000. If we use this to bring people to a computer site, we would call the same amount we intend to spend a “traffic budget,” since we are working to get the traffic to the site or even to our brick and mortar store using computer advertising.

“Conversion” is not just a religious term. It now means getting the customer to meet the business and to interact with it. Conversion is the mechanism and process of pouring targeted consumers into, through, and out the other side of the marketing funnel. The conversion rate is only going to be a percent of all those who come to the site, the percent who actually buy.

One way to get people to the site and to convert is to encourage them to do something, to become interactive. The best way to do that simply is a “call to action (CTA).”

A call to action has four main parts:

1. The Call: This is the request that a person interact the way you want him to.


2. The Action: On the computer, the simplest action a person can make is to click a button.


3. The Outcome: What happens when the person clicks the button. This should be related to the call. For example, if you ask them to click to get a free coupon, you deliver the coupon when they click the button.


4. The Design: The design will make a difference in how people respond, but there are many different types of designs. You will have to do some experimenting to find the one that works best for you.

Your CTA needs to be on every one of your website pages. If you have a blog site, it should be at the bottom of each blog.

How are you doing with this information? Are you having trouble getting responses?

 

Jaco Grobbelaar, owner of BroadVision Marketing, helps business owners and business professionals put marketing strategies in place that consistently secure new clients. He can be reached at jaco@broadvisionmarketing.com or 707.799.1238. You can “Like” him at www.facebook.com/broadvisionmarketing or connect with him on www.linkedin.com/in/JacoGrobbelaar.

 

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Topics: marketing, Using Different Media, landing page, Conversion rate, Hubspot, Marketing Plan, Facebook, mobile marketing, Social Media, Marketing Principles, Business, social media marketing, Branding, Blogging, Twitter

You have spent a lot of your marketing budget setting up your website. Your homepage looks real good and reminds you of the old newspaper ads of old. So why aren’t people converting using it?

Conversion about keeping your customer focused. A homepage full of your products is the opposite of focus. Even if you only have one service for sale, your homepage is full of details, again the opposite of focus.

What you need are specific “landing page” that you can manage and optimize in controlled isolation. Technically a landing page is any page on your website that customers arrive at or land on.  It should be created as a stand-alone page, as a promotion specific site.

Topics: marketing, Using Different Media, Marketing and Advertising, landing page, Customer, website, Facebook, Social Media, Marketing Principles, Business, Blogging

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="250" caption="Zuckerberg explains Timeline"] [/caption]

Facebook is going through a major upheaval among savvy users, according to internet news services. For one thing Facebook unveiled its Timeline recently, an act that followed closely on the news that Facebook privacy practices were found faulty by the Federal Trade Commission. Furthermore, this past summer elderly people in various places in the United States were scammed based on Facebook information they probably thought was private, but instead was used against them.

Some of the seniors, top worries when it comes to learning to use Facebook came from an article by Colleen Greene on “Helping senior citizens learn how to use Facebook” at (11.2.10) http://colleenscommentary.net/2010/11/02/helping-senior-citizens-learn-how-to-use-facebook/. Greene asked the elderly what their concerns were and their top concerns were privacy risks.

Topics: United States, Social network, Timeline, privacy settings, Federal Trade Commission, Privacy, Facebook Timeline, Personally identifiable information, Facebook, Social Media

[caption id="attachment_2817" align="alignleft" width="161" caption="From Mark Zuckerberg's private scrapbook"] [/caption]

This summer saw scams on the elderly based on information they had placed on Facebook. This fall a Federal Trade Commission investigation sanctioned Facebook for how it protected users’ information and pictures. Facebook agreed to let users “opt into” changes altering how their personal information it shared with advertisers and other users.

At the same time Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg’s own private Facebook site was hacked. See The Telegraph, (12.18.11)http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/8938725/Facebook-privacy-flaw-exposes-Mark-Zuckerberg-photos.html.

Topics: Facebook, Social Media

Guest Blogger Ann Mullen

[caption id="attachment_2808" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="From CNN.com"] [/caption]

Do you remember when your elementary school teachers used to scare you to death with a reminder that your bad grade was going on your permanent record? I knew for a fact that this record existed until I reached college and learned I had a clean slate.

Facebook has perfected an actual permanent record when they officially rolled out Timeline  their newest addition to the world-wide social network of 800 million members yesterday (12.15.11). Not everyone is getting the design at the same time although people very excited to see or start the design early can go to Facebook.com/about/Timeline to get it. It should be in gear for all in about a week.

Topics: Facebook, Social Media

[caption id="attachment_2796" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Facebook, not just for children"] [/caption]

Recently I was asked to speak to a group of senior citizens about how to use Facebook. There is more than I could cover in roughly an hour, but I have some interesting reasons why they might be interested.

• Reason 1: There are groups on Facebook set up to tell senior citizens what sort of activities they might be interested in attending. These groups are started by chamber of commerce committees or from centers for senior citizens. The nice thing about them is that they report on the activities for those who cannot attend.

Topics: Social network, Grandparent, Senior citizen, Farmville, Online Communities, Facebook, Social Media, Business, Marketing strategy

Guest Blogger Ann Mullen, BroadVision Marketing team member

 

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Sheryl Sandberg, COO Facebook"] [/caption]

As I googled Facebook Marketing, I discovered a site on Facebook about Facebook Marketing.

The first site I discovered was Facebook Marketing Solutions-Welcome  https://www.facebook.com/marketing?sk=app_155746857831090.  Have you seen this?

I think we need to do some vocabulary clarification at this point. There are two meanings for "marketing". The first refers to a company like ours, BroadVision Marketing, that helps small business owners develop ways to sell their products and services. That’s where the second meaning comes in. Marketing also refers to the ways the small business owners sell their products and services. We are a marketing agency that helps you market your product or service.

Topics: Facebook Marketing, Sheryl Sandberg, Market, Facebook Studio, Facebook, Social Media, Marketing Principles, Business Owner, Business, Marketing strategy

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="245" caption="Image via CrunchBase"] [/caption]

What do you think of when you think of Facebook Marketing?

If you are like most of the people whose blogs I looked at this week, you think that Facebook’s function as a marketing social network is that “ Facebook is not an environment for selling, direct promoting or sponsoring. It’s a place for networking and connecting with people. . . . A little daily action will pay you back very well over time…” Jym Tarrant   http://jymtarrant.com/facebook-marketing-rules/

Topics: landing page, Hubspot, Facebook, Social Media, Marketing Principles, Marketing strategy

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Old "Six Degrees of Separation" Chart"] [/caption]

Facebook’s data team has announced that there are more like 4.74 degrees of separation between people. The old adage of “ six degrees of separation” that defined social media back when Friendster was the social media site has been replaced. The number represents the average number of people separating any two individuals on the social network.

What does this tell the wise social media Facebook Fan Page owner? What about the new business owner who is unsure about whether to tread the unknown depths of social media at all?

Topics: Social network, Online Communities, Six degrees of separation, Friendster, Facebook, Social Media, Business, Marketing strategy

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Police arrest"] [/caption]

So you are not sure that anyone is serious about social media like Facebook. Your Facebook page is even looked at by the police. While you don’t need to worry if you aren’t being unlawful you might be surprised who is looking at you.

The police are mostly looking at what is posted publicly. In the United States they have to have a subpoena to access private accounts.

In a missing person or kidnapping case, the police use Facebook  to get information. They might check to see if the kidnapped person’s account has been accessed lately.

Topics: Facebook, Social Media